Mike Bacon takes a look at the football wages gravy train, and why Phil Neville should delete his social media apps! Plus he asks, who’d be a caddy?

Barcelona's Lionel Messi, is rewaded well - more than Cristiano Ronaldo

I have no idea where it is going to end.

The rise of footballers’ wages, that is.

This week Alexis Sánchez became the latest star player to command a weekly wage more in keeping with amounts we associate with rebates from the EU, than football pay packets – rumoured to be £300k a week (£15m a year) – when he joined Manchester United.

It blows the mind.

But get used to it.

Market forces say that Sánchez is being paid no more than he is able to command, so why shouldn’t he earn it?

Sean Dyche acknowledges the fans after the final whistle. He has just signed a lucrative new deal.

And here’s the rub.

The rise in footballers’ wages ain’t going to stop anytime soon.

Lionel Messi is reportedly earning £40m a year, joining Carlos Tevez as the highest paid player in the world.

Messi and Tevez earn almost twice as much as Real Madrid talisman Cristiano Ronaldo, while his £21m annual salary is less too than Neymar – his world record move to Paris Saint-Germain pockets him £30m a year.

However, like it or not, the popularity of the game is showing no signs of slowing down – so neither will astronomical wages.

Football attendances in Europe increased by 2.6 million last season, with 14 leagues achieving their best attendance figures in more than a decade.

Figures released by UEFA, highlighted a 1.5% year-on-year increase in spectator numbers at domestic and European games. The English Premier League, not surprisingly, was the most popular in Europe, with an aggregate of 13.9 million.

However, the German Bundesliga – which has two fewer teams – had the highest average attendance of 43,300 – possibly helped by lower ticket prices.

Rhein Gibson a little heated on final hole of Web event. Trailed by 1, hooked shot into hazard. Caddie picked up ball in hazard before Gibson got to it. Subsequent 1-shot penalty difference between T-2 and solo 3rd. https://t.co/09AiDaLsEQ

Poor Brandon Davis copped it from his pro, Rhein Gibson on the Web.com Tour this week, receiving a head cover to the chops on the last hole!

Needing a birdie to tie on a closing par five in Wednesday’s final round of the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic, Gibson found a hazard with his second shot. Gibson’s ball was eventually found and he took a drop.

But he was given an additional penalty because an official ruled his caddie, Davis, had picked it up while it was still in play

He might have got away with it on the 18th at Bridlington, but Golf Channel cameras caught the action as an upset Gibson chipped his fifth shot to tap-in range, grabbed his putter, and fired the head cover off Davis’ chest.

The extra shot gave Gibson a bogey and took him from tied second to solo third – and a few thousand quid worse off.